Even Donald Trump — whose mother was born in Scotland — has royal connections. He is related to Richard III through the medieval monarch’s great-great uncle, the 1st Duke of Lancaster, John of Gaunt, who died in 1399.

Now is the nuclear winter of our discontent … Donald Trump — whose mother was born in Scotland — is related to Richard III

So do the rest of us commoners stand a chance of being related to those at the top of the social tree?

The answer is a right royal YES!

Killjoys have always liked to ridicule the idea that anyone can have touch of nobility in their genes, but modern DNA science makes the sceptics look silly.

Until recently you had to scour the dusty archives to find documents identifying parents. Maybe you could also find gossip and rumours about people being conceived on the wrong side of the blanket — but there was no proof.

NO HEIRS AND GRACES

Hire Maj

Dyer ‘nother day … King Edward III has been revealed to be an ancestor of the EastEnders hardman

But before you suggest to the current occupant of Buckingham Palace that you’ve got a prior claim, remember Edward III fathered well over 100 ­bastards. If you multiply all the descendants of adulterous kings from well before the Norman ­Conquest, most of us could fill the living room wall with heraldic plaques.

If you think about a promiscuous king such as Edward III, who was active from the 1330s until around 1376, then multiply his children’s descendants, then millions of us are likely to be related.

Paris match … hotel heiress Paris Hilton could make a claim to the throne, although it might not be very well received by it’s current incumbent

Many other monarchs fathered countless illegitimate children. Sometimes it was an open secret. Charles II rewarded a complacent husband with a gong for turning a blind eye to his romps with the lady wife.

Darker gossip suggested that queens gave birth to the children of non-royal fathers — a capital offence.

Where there’s a Will … William the Conqueror has been linked to former Harold Pinter protegee Danny Dyer

The 18 kings who reigned between 1066 and 1485 were fathers several times over — Henry II had at least 20 children to his name. In time his lineage would give the world former US President Jimmy Carter, Beach Boys singer Brian Wilson and Luke Skywalker himself, actor Mark Hamill.

So DNA cuts both ways. It can show that Uncle Tom Cobley is a descendant of kings and queens, but sometimes it reveals that dukes and duchesses are the children of coachmen and gamekeepers.

Just about anyone who stands to inherit something through a bloodline has cause to shiver at what DNA might show. The problem with science is it is no respecter of class.